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FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attend the Royal Salute Polo Challenge to benefit Sentebale, a charity founded by him and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho to support children in Lesotho and Botswana, in Wellington, Florida, U.S., April 12, 2024.
£10 million to spare: Prince Harry wins tabloid legal battle
The Duke of Sussex (or Montecito, these days) achieved the impossible: He got the British tabloids toapologize.
Prince Harry on Wednesday hailed his victory and reported eight-figure settlement of more than £10 million ($12.33 million) from Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers, or NGN, publisher “The Sun” newspaper in Britain, for unlawful surveillance – including phone hacking – between 1996 and 2011. The admission marks a 180-degree pivot by NGN, who apologized for the “serious intrusion” into both his private life and that of his mother, Princess Diana, who died following a public car chase with paparazzi in 1997. “The goal is accountability. It’s really that simple,” Harry, who is fifth in line to the British throne,said last month.
The settlement pales in comparison to the $787 million awarded to Dominion Voting Systems from Murdoch’s Fox Corporation, who settled a defamation lawsuit in 2023 over alleged claims of election interference. Earlier this month, a New York appeals court ruled thatanother $2.7 billion defamation suit against Fox can continue, this time from voting manufacturer Smartmatic. While the successes of these cases are significant, massive media conglomerates like the Murdoch empire won’t be crumbling under these payouts anytime soon.
Trust in media is at ahistoric low, and these cases reflect a growing appetite for journalistic integrity and responsible reporting. Don’t expect payouts and apologies to change the landscape anytime soon, though. As long as the most invasive and sensational stories keep feeding clicks and generating the most ad revenue, expect the feedback loop to continue … adding to everyone’s trust issues.